Day laborers afraid to look for work, fear potential arrests

CBS46 cameras caught Reverend Juan Sandoval of The Cathedral of St. Phillip passing out coffee to some metro Atlanta day laborers.

"A lot of them are quite scared as to what tomorrow may bring," he said.

He was passing out coffee to try to lift their spirits during what has been a nerve-wrecking time for them.

"[They're] in a situation where they need work and are having difficulty," he said.

You may have seen them before. Immigrant day laborers often line streets or parking lots, waiting for someone to hire them to help move furniture, assemble equipment or do other odd jobs. They're paid hourly or daily, usually in cash. Many of them are undocumented.

Now you won't find as many of them in plain site.

Rev. Sandoval spoke with a few of the men who were out looking for work on Wednesday.

"He's saying they're afraid of the police that are out here for the immigration," Sandoval translated. "They have to be careful of what they're doing at this point."

Some workers are now losing money and their livelihoods. Sandoval believes it's his job to help them somehow.

"I think Jesus put us here to act on his behalf," he said. "To help them through these difficult times."

According to a Pew Research Center study, there are about 375 thousand undocumented immigrants in Georgia. There's no record of just how many of them are day laborers.

Atlanta's Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office deported 5770 undocumented immigrants in their last fiscal year.